


The Night's Still Young

by ThePrettyTomboy



Series: Carolina Appreciation Week [3]
Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Alcohol, Bad Pick-Up Lines, Canon Compliant, Carolina Appreciation Week, F/M, Pre-Canon, Pre-Relationship, Smoking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-08
Updated: 2014-10-08
Packaged: 2018-02-20 10:21:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2425157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThePrettyTomboy/pseuds/ThePrettyTomboy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carolina wasn’t looking for love when she met York at Club Errera.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Night's Still Young

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilaaaz.
> 
> Yet another quickie for Carolina Appreciation Week. Dear god when did I start shipping Yorkalina.

          Carolina wasn’t looking for love when she met York at Club Errera. Far from it, in fact. Just that morning she’d received a promotion to first lieutenant, and that afternoon she’d told the news to her father, who had waved her away without so much as an upward quirk of his lips or a courteous “good for you”. Not even beating the hell out of a punching bag had taken the edge off his dismissal, so Carolina had changed and taken off for the seediest side of downtown, long after sunset, when the streets were most dangerous.

          She was downing her second shot when she saw him sitting alone on the other side of the bar, flicking the silver Zippo lighter in his hand on and off, staring into the flame with a frown on his lips. He was wearing civvies, but the cut of his auburn hair and the muscle tone of his bared arms told Carolina he was a soldier. She knocked back another shot, wincing at the burn of the alcohol sliding down her throat, and stood from the barstool she had been occupying. The room rocked around her as she staggered to where he sat and reached over him to pluck the lighter from his fingers.

          York whipped around in his seat, the beginnings of an indignant, “Hey!” catching in his throat as he laid eyes on Carolina for the first time.

          She turned her prize over in her hand, smoothing her thumb along the metal and flicking it open. Tensed for the punch she was hoping the man before her would throw, Carolina reached into her pocket and pulled out a cigarette, tucking it into her lips and speaking around it as she flicked the lighter on. “Thanks, I’ve been needing a good light.” She blew smoke in York’s face.

          To her surprise, he smiled for the first time since she’d noticed him, one side of his mouth tilting upward, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. “Can’t imagine why you’d need one, that halo you’ve got is blinding. Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?” He laughed at the bewildered look he was given and motioned to the empty stool beside him. “All right, even I have to admit that one was pretty cheesy. Can I make it up to you with a drink?” Hand raised to get the bartender’s attention, he glanced over his left shoulder to where Carolina was taking a seat. “Must be a pretty special occasion if you’re trying to pick a fight with another soldier in the seediest bar this side of Valhalla. How’s an IPA sound?”

          Carolina, still reeling from the way he’d shrugged off her antagonistic intentions, nodded as she took another drag of her cigarette.

          “Two of those then,” York told the bartender. He slid one over to Carolina when they were placed in front of him, taking a drink from his own mug and coming out of it with a foamy mustache.

          Chuckling, Carolina handed him a napkin from the rack at the corner of the bar.

          York accepted it, eyes softening as he wiped his upper lip, and said, “I like your laugh.”

          “Does it remind you of angels too?” Carolina asked.

          York rubbed the back of his neck, wearing a sheepish grin. “I’m not gonna live that one down, am I?”

          With a shrug and a sip of her own beer, Carolina replied, “The night’s still young. You have time to come up with a worse line.”


End file.
